Auctions on this site?

[Darren]

Would anyone be interested in a book auction facility at The Book Forum.

A similar system to ebay (though not as advanced, I have to admit), but specific to books. Buy, swap and sell new, used, rare books etc...

It would have a different membership system to the forums and the rest of the site. Sellers and bidders would not have to be registerd members of the forums, but would need to register through the auction system.

Payment to sellers would be a private matter between buyer and seller, but there would be a feedback system (similar to ebay).

Auctions would be free initially, but perhaps a small listing fee later on if they become popular (to help to pay for the hosting and software licenses for the site). This fee would be cheaper than ebay, either a fixed fee or a percentage of the list price?

Any thoughts, suggestions?

Darren.

 

[fluffyfluff]

Great IDEA

 

[Darren]

Thanks.

Anyone else got any opinions or thoughts? Out of 700 members there must be some out there...

 

[lies]

I don't know. There are members from so many different countries... I don't think I'd ever use it.

 

[Darren]

Originally posted by lies
There are members from so many different countries...

That could be a problem. The software will let you state which country you are from. Could be useful if you're a collector or want a rarer edition from another country though

 

[Darren]

Any more thoughts on this one?

It's still something I'm looking into, but it's not high priority at the moment.

 

[murphyz]

My first thoughts on this would be 'why'?

I was thinking of setting up a 'bookswap' feature on my forum (not until I had enough members though) but it would probably not work very well as it's likely one person would want a book of someone elses, but that someone else would not want a book back from that person, especially a book of the same 'value'.
It would be possible to get something going such as is done at Swappingtons - but if the idea collapses you are left with 'points' that you will need to pay for.

Setting up something like ebay would be, in my opinion, pointless on a site of this size as you will need tens of thousands of people for it to work. What are the chances of your members having that 'rare' book that I want? Or if I put one of my rarities online, such as the 'Oddkins' by Dean Koontz, what's to guarantee one of your members will pay anywhere near the price that someone from ebay would do - simply due to the fact there are more people seeing the product and, therefore a greater demand, on ebay?

Yes, it would be nice to have the feature on the forum, but I can't see that everyone would have something to offer, or get the price they can get elsewhere. I think it would only be a success if the number of members on the site was much much higher.

Perhaps, as an introduction to this feature and to test the waters, you could do a 'buddy loan' service? That way, people who have each other on their buddy list can offer selected works in their collection to their buddy to borrow. Both buddies would pay postage for the book or, if in agreement, do an outright swap of one book for another. Again though, I'm not entirely sure it will take off because no-one will pay £1.50 postage to borrow a 'classic' novel they can pick up second hand for £1.

Tricky subject, worth delving into. Have you had more thoughts on this since your last post here?

Mxx

 

[Darren]

I've more or less decided not to bother with auctions here. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm not so sure.

As you say, ebay has a huge userbase and offers a good service. The only downside are the listing fees for the seller, but that's inevitable if ebay are to pay for their servers and bandwith.

A swap system may be something to consider, but I'm not sure how it could be implemented.

It may be something to consider in the future, but at the moment it's on the back-burner.

Darren.

 

[Darren]

As a follow-up to this, The Book Forum will definitely not be hosting auctions.

We've created a sister-site at The Book Auctions for people from around the world to buy and sell books, comics and magazines etc.

There are NO LISTING FEES, and NO CLOSING FEES either!

As an introductory offer The Book Auctions will not be charging for additional features such as Bold, Gallery, Featured or Highlited items for sale either!

Registration is FREE, so why wait?